Todd Gartner

Bio

Todd Gartner is a Senior Associate for the World Resources Institute’s Food, Forests & Water Program. He run’s WRI’s Natural Infrastructure for Water project working with governments and businesses to invest in conserving and restoring forests, wetlands, and other ecosystems in order to secure freshwater supplies, reduce flood risks, and obtain other economic and social benefits. Todd works with a broad range of stakeholders including policy makers, development banks, national and municipal level government agencies, multinational corporations, and civil society to achieve water and land use objectives across the globe. His work focuses on identifying and mapping water and ecosystem risk relevant to downstream beneficiaries, making the financial and business case for natural infrastructure investments, and advancing the needed policies, incentives, design elements and financing mechanisms to achieve scale and desired outcomes.

Gartner’s previous work included developing and running the Conservation Incentives and Ecosystem Markets program at the American Forest Foundation, field forestry work in New England, fire ecology and eco-tourism research in Botswana and India, business consulting for the USDA Forest Service and several years as a corporate financial consultant.

Gartner earned his Master of Forestry degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a B.S. in finance from University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business. He is also a Doris Duke Conservation Fellow, Switzer Environmental Fellow, Environmental Leadership Program Fellow, and Property and Environmental Research Center Fellow.

Todd is based in Portland, Oregon and is an avid hiker, rock climber, snowboarder and Baltimore Ravens fan.

A Colorado wildfire that caused $25 million in damage also played havoc with Denver's drinking water supply, prompting the Mile-High City and others to invest in watershed protection to safeguard forests where the water they need originates. Protecting forested watersheds is critical for utilities that serve over 10,000 U.S. cities. Here are 10 factors that can guide watershed investment.

Natural infrastructure, strategically managed natural and open spaces like forests or wetlands, can direct more clean water to cities by controlling water flows, preventing sediment buildup and absorbing pollutants before they flow into waterways.

Recent extreme droughts and floods have forced an evaluation of how water infrastructure impacts other sectors, highlighting the need for a multi-disciplinary, cross-sectoral approach to balance environmental, social and economic concerns against a backdrop of climate change.

Securing clean water is becoming increasingly difficult in the United States. Infrastructure like dams and treatment plants are aging, water demand is increasing, and more frequent extreme weather events like wildfires and flooding are driving up the cost of water management.

It’s a complex problem, but one of the potential solutions is decidedly low-tech: Invest in nature.

Natural ecosystems provide essential services for our communities. Forests and wetlands, for example, filter the water we drink, protect neighborhoods from floods and droughts, and shade aquatic habitat for fish populations.

While nature provides this “green infrastructure,” water utilities and other decision-makers often attempt to replicate these services with concrete-and-steel “gray infrastructure”—usually at a much greater cost. Particularly where the equivalent natural ecosystems are degraded, we build filtration plants to clean water, reservoirs to regulate water flow, and mechanical chillers to protect fish from increasing stream temperatures. And even though healthy ecosystems can reduce the operational costs of these structures, investing in restoring or enhancing various types of green infrastructure is rarely pursued—either as a substitute for or complement to gray infrastructure.

Despite America’s history of reliance on gray infrastructure, now is a critical time to tip the scales in favor of a green infrastructure approach to water-resource management. Investing in the conservation and improved management of natural ecosystems to secure and protect water systems can keep costs down and create jobs. Green infrastructure can also provide a suite of co-benefits for the air we breathe, the places we play, the wildlife we share our landscapes with, and the climate we live in.

Publications

Lessons from United States Watershed Investment Programs

Watershed investment programs offer promising pathways to securing safe drinking water. But what does it take to establish and grow a successful watershed investment program? Program investors and practitioners are looking for guidance and ideas on how to build a program that works for their own...

This document explains the underlying science and assumptions of natural infrastructure for water, describes data layers and information, documents data sources, and details the methodology used to generate watershed risk scores in Global Forest Watch Water. All data and maps are publicly...

A Product of the National Network on Water Quality Trading

This report aims to provide a reference on common elements and decisions inherent in water quality trading (WQT) program design, especially point-nonpoint WQT programs and the range of available options.

It is intended to help establish WQT programs, provide greater transparency about...

Investing in Forested Landscapes for Source Water Protection in the United States

Aging water infrastructure, increasing demand, continued land use change, and increasingly extreme weather events are driving the costs of water management higher in the United States. Investing in integrated water management strategies that combine engineered solutions with "natural...

by Todd Gartner, James Mulligan, Rowan Schmidt and John Gunn - October 2013

This issue brief describes analyses by the World Resources
Institute (WRI) in support of emerging payments for watershed
services (PWS) programs in two major watersheds in Maine and
North Carolina and insights gleaned from work in progress. The
three pilot initiatives...

This issue brief reports on the mechanics of and lessons learned from a conservation incentive program focused on the gopher tortoise. Its aim is to inform the successful design and implementation of other candidate programs emerging throughout the southern forests and greater United States.